Mass Effect: The Ghost of War
by Lt.Sandman305
Summary: Every Alliance marine had heard the rumours going through trainning. The rumours of a special forces operator so deadly the very mention of him would make a Krogan shake in fear. A man who has been rumoured impossible to kill to the point where the Grim Reaper didnt want to take his soul upon death in fear of his fury. Now Shepard can’t help the feelings she has for such a man.
1. chapter 1

Commander Shepard stood in her room looking over the contents of the datapad she was currently using to write her after action reports. The mission to Therum to find Liara had so many things going on she would hardly believe some the things she was writing if she hadn't been there and lived through it herself. Frustrated with having to write the report in the first place she tossed the datapad on the bed and got off her bed to go find something better to do with her time. She gave a quick wave to Kaidan as she left her quarters and made her way to the stairs leading to the navigation terminal.

She stepped onto the platform to look over the navigation systems when and emergency communications from the fifth fleet pinged on the interface. "Joker put him through!" The sound of Admiral Hacketts voice coming through the comms made her straighten her posture out of reflex. "Commander, I want to thank your for your help with the rogue VI, but unfortunately that's not why I'm calling, I need your help again. Like I said before, I know you're a Specter now but I'm gonna need that Alliance marine part of your for this mission Commander." Her brows furrowed in confusion at the Admiral's choice of words. The Alliance marine part of me? She couldn't help but think as she took in his words and tried to guess what he meant. "Of course sir! What's the mission?" She heard him let out a frustrated sigh before explaining her mission. " Shepard what do you know of the rumours around the Ghost of War?" She couldn't have even tried to of hid the look of shock and confusion that washed a crossed her facial features. "Just the standard rumour every Alliance marine hears sir. He's an Alliance special forces recon expert, apparently so undetectable that he was able to sneak around a Turian ship for a month without ever being found. I heard he's an expert in death, so good in fact that he's died numerous times but always bounces back because the Grim Reaper is too afraid to take his sole in fear of what might happen. A soldier so deadly it would make a Krogan battlemaster shake with fear at the sight of him, but of course they're just rumours. Right sir?"

"Well Shepard, no they aren't rumours. This man does exist and he has done many task to earn that reputation. Shepard, I'm transferring him under your command. If you're gonna take down Saren, you're gonna need all the help you can get. I'm sending you the Navpoint of the location to meet him. He'll be waiting for you on the Citadel."

"Sir just a quick question, how will I know what he looks like? How am I supposed to find someone if I don't know what he looks like?" There was a chuckle on the other end of the line as she waited for a response. "You won't be able to find him. He'll find you. Goodbye Shepard." She stared up at the ceiling of the ship and hugged out a breath in disbelief. Figured the first human specter gets teamed up with the biggest Alliance legend who to most doesn't even exist, to everyone he was just a rumour told between soldiers when bored. " Joker get us to the Citadel." She walked back to her room with the thought of what her new member would look like plaguing her thoughts for the rest of the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Shepard gave her crew the rest of the day off as she left the Normandy to go find her new crew member. She took a look at the navpoint with her omni-tool, it was right in the middle of the presidium. She thought it strange he didn't pick a place like the market or somewhere more discreet than the presidium but she gave a shove of the railing of the elevator as it finally came to a halt. If he was such an expert at these things then she would not be quick to judge his planning. She walked to the statue of the Mass Relay and leaned against the railing staring at the peacefulness of the water. She became aware of the person that was walking towards her. From the sound of his footsteps it was a determined walk, just from his walk she could build the professional yet deadly persona he would most likely have she turned to find a middle aged man with no hair walking in her direction, she leaned on her left leg popping out her hip and crossing her arms. He definitely wasn't what she was expecting, she was just about to stick her hand out when the man didn't even glance her way as he walked past heading in a completely different direction. She was startled by a sudden outburst of uncontrollable laughter came from her left she turned towards the sound to find a young man probably around 25 holding the side of his abdomen laughing. He wore a red and black plaid flannel shirt with a pair of dark blue jeans and black combat boots and his dog tags swung freely around his neck as he couldn't control his laughter. "Please don't tell me you actually thought he was me I mean c'mon!" She took inhis face now the he had stopped his laughing and left a smile on his face. He had tanned skin, his eyes were a mixture of blue and grey that seemed to fit him and he had short black hair that was shaven on the sides. "Well he was walking towards me so yeah I did!" She watched as he gave her a once over that made her skin tingle and heat up. He gave an approving smirk as his eyes stayed on her hips. She didn't understand why though, she knew she had a good looking body by the comments she would receive every once in awhile but that was when she was dressed up. Now she only wore the military fatigues that she would wear around the ship and her neck length auburn hair was just dangling freely nothing special done to it. She let her bright green eyes roam over the parts of his body she could see. He had the sleeves of his flannel rolled up to reveal his muscular forearms, on his left forearm was the tattoo of the Canadian flag with two old fashion Lee-Enfield bolt action rifles making and X behind the flag. "So the old man decided you need my help with finding Saren, well madame, Sergeant Ryan Fenton at your service!" He stood and gave a bow to her and stood back up with a smile on his face.

She was leaning against the railing in the conference room waiting for the rest of her squad to return from there quick shore leave. She kept stealing glances at Ryan as he sat in one of the chairs. He had been staring at her since he sat in the chair, she wanted to brief her squad on the new crew member but since everyone was taking their time getting back to the ship, she was now alone with the man who wouldn't stop staring at her. " why are you staring at me?" She turned her head to look at his face as his eyes moved to her eyes, she crossed had arms across her chest unsure about the warmth in her chest as she looked into her eyes. "You know, you have a great ass!" Her cheeks instantly flushed pink from his statement and she couldn't help the deepening of her flushed face as his eyes lowered to said part of her. "I'm uh I'm your commanding officer, I uh don't think it's appropriate for you to be saying such things. Don't you?" She couldn't understand it. How was it that a simple remark from this man made her feel like some schoolgirl who got a compliment from her crush. She was Commander Fucking Shepard for Christ's sake! "Well since I'm technically off the books on everything since joining the Alliance and since I technically don't exist, I'd have to say that technically you ain't my CO." He gave her wink and a smile as his explanation rolled around in her head. He had a point, since the Alliance couldn't officially acknowledge that he existed since he was special operations assets he technically belonged to no one except for the Alliance. She chewed on her bottom lip as she mulled over his explanation. She was interrupted in her thoughts by the sound of the door opening and her crew walking, all of them throwing questioning looks at the unknown man. "Alright everybody's here, there's a new member to our crew. He's gonna help us defeat Saren. All Alliance personal have already heard of him through rumours but for those of you who don't, this man is known throughout the Alliance military as the best special forces recon expert alive. Most people know him as the Ghost of War though." She interrupted by the gasp of shock from everyone in the room which surprised her more so. It looked as though he was well know through the galaxy and not just the Alliance. She stole a glance at the man of the hour to find him more interested in watching her. She couldn't help the small blush that rose to her cheeks. As she looked up to her crew to dismiss them she caught both Asheley and Liara taking in the form of Ryan as he sta there. She had to hold in the small pangs of jealousy as she realized what the meaning of they're stated implied. She had a good idea why she wasn't happy about it but she wasn't going to do anything drastic that was for sure." Alright dismiss everyone, Sergeant Ryan I'll show you where you can bunk." She reveled in her small victory as she noticed Asheley give a smal frown at not being able to speak to him right away. She couldn't explain why it mattered to her so much but she enjoyed knowing that she was keeping him to herself for a little longer.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ok so the last stop on the tour of the ship is the cockpit. The man wearing the baseball cap is our pilot, Joker . Best pilot in the Alliance as he claims." Shepard gave the Ghost of War a smile as she stopped just behind the pilot seat. "Yeah I've heard of him, Jeff aka Joker Moreau, got the nickname during pilot training from an instructor because he was too serious." Joker shifted to look behind his chair with the biggest look of confusion on his face Shepard had ever seen in her life. "How in the hell man?!" Shepard let out a burst of laughter as she watched the man you was supposed to be the most feared man alive boop her pilot on his nose with his fingers before walking away laughing. "I was in the class my good man!" He yelled as he walked away towards the stairs. Shepard and Joker looked to each other with bewilderment as a brilliant idea popped in her head. " Joker every Alliance class when they graduate takes a picture of the group. Tell me your class did that too?" He gave a nod before pulling up his omni-tool and typed something in. Before her eyes was the picture of his class, she gave Joker a smile and they both started searching through the crowd of faces.

An hour later they still hadn't found a face that resembled his. "I don't understand I don't remember him being in the class and he's not in the picture!" Joker gave a huff of frustration at the dead end they had. Joker suddenly didn't understand why they were even looking for him. "Wait Shepard why are we even looking for him?" Shepard didn't know how to answer, how was she supposed to explain this, he couldn't find out why she wanted to find him. "It's cuz she wants to see me in an Alliance uniform. Yeah don't act like I'm not aware of your obsession over me. Joker did you know that Shepard has had an obsession with the rumours about the Ghost of War since the moment she heard them during her training N7 training, she also hasn't told you that she spent every moment of free time she had searching for any information on me. Yep Katherine Shepard here is just about my biggest fan in the entire galaxy and now that I've finally met you I must say Commander I am flattered to have you as an obsessive fan!" Ryan gave her a a bright smile as he waited for her answer but all he got was a mixed look of anger, shock, confusion and embarrassment as she stared at him not knowing what to do. "Sergeant Fenton May I have a word with you in private?" Shepard stormedtowards her quarters with Ryan on her heels. As soon as the door closed behind him she turned on her heel pointed her finger in his face with the angriest look he'd ever seen on a woman and he had seen quite a few in his days of shore leave. "I don't know how you know about all the searches I made during N7 training but I would appreciate it if you kept that to yourself." Shepard's anger and embarrassment slowly died down as she took in his easy and soothing smile that he graced her with. " Shepard your secret is safe with me. But I need a favour, I have a lead on a Merc that has worked with Saren before and for some reason this guy is still alive, I want to found out why. His base of operations is on Tuntau , now I need you to drop me off on the planet before you go to Noveria."

"So to be perfectly clear, you want me to drop you off on some random planet then go to a mission and what? Just forget about you and leave you there?" She couldn't believe what he was asking. She had never believed that the rumours were true, she figured some scared criminals told the stores with exaggerated facts and it somehow got to the Alliance but he seemed way too confident about being dropped alone on some random planet. Yes it made sense he would be since he's an off the book Alliance operator but that was it she figured he was just some spook with a big story cropped out of thin air and yet here he was pretty much ordering her to drop him off alone on a planet so he could go investigate this guy!? "Yeah that's pretty much the gist of it Shepard. Look I know you don't believe the stories and all but I've made it this long doing what I do and the reason I'm still alive is because I'm good at what I do. My job demands I live in the shadows, be able to make you like me enough to spill your secrets but be able to allow you to forget who I am and what I look like by the end of the night. The Alliance recruited me when I was 8, at the age of 15 I was considered trained enough to be put on a probationary mission, I was to kill some politician who was going to put the Systems Alliance in Jeopardy. So I did andever since I was 15 I've been doing this black ops bullshit for them. I know what I'm doing ok." She gave him a nod as she processed this new information, she was startled out of her thoughts when Ryan brought his hand up to her cheek and rubbed his thumb in gentle circles. Shepard couldn't help it, her skin was tingling under his touch. She couldn't stop her eyes from closing and she also couldn't stop a content sigh escape her lips as she enjoyed the simple touch that would usually be used between lovers. At the sudden realization her eyes shot open to look into his. "I...uh I trust that you do know what you're doing, but as for what you're doing right now, that I'm not too certain you know what you're doing." She didn't step back or make any moves to remove his hand as she didn't actually want him to move it. She understood what his small little gesture meant. It was an invitation to something more, although she wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Yes she thought he was good looking and a funny person in the short time she had met him and that was the problem. She didn't know him. "Shepard you're a spectacular woman, you're brave, you're beautiful and you're determined. All strong and great qualities in a person. It would be an honour if I could get to know you better. Maybe after your mission on Noveria and I'm done on Tuntau, you and I could go for dinner or a drink. Up to you?" She could see the nervousness in his eyes as she stared at him, he had allowed her to see a side no one ever saw to him. She gave him a smile and a nod before bringing her hand up to his face, cupping his cheek and giving him a smile she reserved for few people.

"Joker set course for Tuntau!" She gave him a wink as he backed away and left her room mouthing something about having to get ready. "You got it Shepard!"


End file.
